KANSAS CITY - A flip of a big switch at Kansas City's Country Club Plaza Thursday night ushered in the Christmas season for the 77th year, as crowds lined the upscale, 14-square-block shopping center for the annual Thanksgiving lighting ceremony. The Plaza lighting tradition began in 1925 with one strand of 16 lights over a single doorway and the first actual lighting ceremony took place five years later, with 1973 the only year the lights have not been on for the holiday season. That year then-President Nixon asked Americans to refrain from using Christmas lights to reduce foreign oil imports. The lights will be turned on at 5 p.m. daily through Jan. 14.